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The bi-monthly state newsletter of the Tennessee Chapter Sierra Club Volume 52, Number 2 - March / April 2019
Tennessee Chapter Spring Retreat 2019May 3rd through May 5th Fall Creek Falls State Park
You are invited to the Tennessee Chapter’s Spring Retreat at beautiful Fall Creek Falls State Park. Enjoy the company of other en- vironmentalists. Be a part of the fellowship, hikes, f ireplace chats, and meetings. Don’t miss the Saturday evening program and the informal social gathering that follows. Meet others who share your love and respect for the environment.
SATURDAY EVENING PROGRAMDr. Melanie Mayes, Senior Research Sci-
entist, ClimateChange ScienceInstitute, OakRidge Nation-al Laboratory(ORNL), willsummarize keyf indings from tworecent reportssponsored bythe US Global
Program. Thesereports involve 13 Federal agencies andhundreds of authors at universities, re-search institutions, and non-prof it organiza-tions. The State of the Carbon Cycle Reportassesses scientif ic literature on the carboncycle in North America since 2005. The Na-tional Climate Assessment, produced every4 years, summarizes climate change im-pacts on North America. Dr. Mayes is one ofthe lead editors of the State of the CarbonCycle Report.
OUTINGSOnce again, we’re delighted to have our
TennesseeState NaturalistRandy Hedge-path to lead uson outings bothSaturday andSunday:
• The loop trail
LOCATIONFall Creek Falls State Park*Group Lodge #1*Centrally located 35 miles southwest of Crossville, Tenn., or 44 miles southeast of Cookeville TN. Venue information and direc- tions are available athttps://tnstateparks.com/parks/fall-creek-falls.
ABOUT THE PARKFall Creek Falls State Park (FCF) has spec- tacular water features. In 1937, when the
the land for the park, much of it was badly eroded. The Works Project Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Core (CCC) began conservation programs to restore the ecosystem. The land was transferred to the State in 1944.
The park encompasses 26,000 acres with many waterfalls and cascades, gorges, and extensive forests, with some stands of vir- gin timber. Fall Creek Falls has a 256-foot vertical drop. Other notable falls are Piney Falls, Cane Creek Falls, and Cane Creek Cascades. A detailed topographic map of the park may be downloaded from:https://bit.ly/2lt0508.
Average early May weather at the park-- highs in the mid 70s, lows in the low 50s. Average rainfall for May-- 4.8 inches.
REGISTRATIONRegister by Saturday, April 26, to receive early bird discount.Register online:http://bit.ly/Register_Spring_2019ORContact Bob Perlack, HBG Treasurer [email protected] Northshore Dr, Greenback, TN 37742
RATESAdult registration fee (16 years and older) covers lodging (women’s dorms, men’s dorms, tent camping and truck camping), 2 breakfasts, and Saturday dinner. Pay when you check in.
• Early Bird Discount (by April 26)- $50• Late registration (after April 26) - $60• First Chapter retreat attendees - $25• Students -- $15• Sat Only (registration, dinner) -- $30• Sun Only--Ex Comm meeting (registra-
tion, breakfast, no lodging) -- $10• Sunday Only--Ex Com meeting (registra-
tion only, no lodging or breakfast) -- $5 • Children under 16 – No Charge
WHAT TO BRINGLinens or sleeping bag, pillow, towelStuff for hiking: trail lunches, water bottle, daypack, rain gearBeveragesFlashlight
The retreat begins 4 PM Friday and endsat 2 PM on Sunday. All Retreat participants will be required to sign the standard Sierra Club outings liability waiver when checking in at the retreat location. See waiver details at bottom of page 2.
For questions, contact Ron Shrieves, [email protected].
Randy Hedgepath from NatureCenter to Fall
Creek Falls includes the trail to base ofthe falls. A “premium” trail but it might becrowded.• 2.6 miles on Paw Paw Trail or a 2-mile walk on Wheeler Farm Trail. The Paw Paw Trail starts at the Nature Center andwould feature Pink Ladies Slipper Orchids.Wheeler Farm is outside the main park onHighway 30 and features wildf lowers and anatural arch.
Times and meeting places for hikes will be available at check-in. Daypack with water, lunch, and raingear recommended.
It’s time to plan ahead. Schedule yourself for the Tennessee Chapter’s Summer retreat at Cedars of Lebanon located 31 miles east of Nashville in Wilson County, six miles south of I-40 on U.S. Highway 231 (State Route 10).
You can look forward to all the outdoor funthat summer has to offer--hiking with RandyHedgepath, State Naturalist, playing a round ortwo of frisbee golf, go for a swim in the Olympic
size pool, and hanging out with Nature.Want to learn more about the business
workings of the Chapter? Attend a committeemeeting on Saturday or Chapter ExecutiveCommittee meeting on Sunday
Retreat pricing, meals provided, and whatto bring are the same as those shown abovein the information for our Spring retreat at FallCreek Falls State Park.
Explore, Enjoy and Protect
Tennes-Sierran
Change Research federal government started purchasing
Looking Ahead: Summer Chapter MeetingJuly 26th through July 28th
Cedars of Lebanon State Park
Tennes-Sierran The bi-monthly newsletter of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club.
SEND CHANGE OF ADDRESS TO:Email: [email protected] Mail: Clip the “Moving?” form beside the mailinglabel on page 8 and mail it.
*Address changes are processed much faster if you include your Sierra Club membership number. To f ind your membership number, look on the address label of this newsletter.
SEND ARTICLES TO:E-mail: [email protected] SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
1. Submission Deadline is March 31st for the May /June 2019 issue.
2. E-mail attached f iles are preferred. Send to [email protected]. Files should be sent asa Word or Notepad document. Apple users maysend articles in Pages.
3. Articles should be single spaced. Don’t spacebetween paragraphs. Include a two-space indentat the beginning of each paragraph.
4. Photographs should be scanned in a .jpg or tifformat and attached to email.
5. Hard-copy handwritten or typewritten articlesmay be accepted; however, pre-approval from theEditor is required.
6. Any materials submitted via USPS mail will notbe returned unless a stamped, self-addressedenvelope is provided.
7. The opinions expressed in the Tennes-Sierran arethose of the contributors and do not necessarilyref lect the off icial views or policies of the Tennes-see Chapter or the Sierra Club.
Submission Deadlinefor the May/June Issue is
March 31, 2019.
Send submissions toEmily Ellis
Sierra Club Offi cersTENNESSEE CHAPTER:http://www.sierraclub.org/tennessee
Chair: Mac Post [email protected]
Vice Chair: JoAnn McIntosh [email protected]
Secretary: Joanne Logan [email protected]
Treasurer: Alice Demetreon [email protected]
Conservation: Bill Moll [email protected]
Outings: Ron Shrieves [email protected]
CCL Delegate: Mac Post [email protected]
TENNESSEEE LOCAL GROUPS:Cherokee Grouphttps://www.sierraclub.org/tennessee/cherokeeChair Barbara Kelly 423-718-5009
[email protected] Chair &Secretary: Kate Anthony 513-365-7989
[email protected]: Barbara Hurst 423-886-9503
[email protected]: Bill Moll 404-401-7899
[email protected]: John Doyal 423-315-0965
[email protected] Brown [email protected]
Chickasaw Group - Memphishttps://www.sierraclub.org/tennessee/chickasawChair: Dennis Lynch 901-361-8029
[email protected] Chair &Secretary: Ramie Bell 901-383-3680
[email protected]: Sue Moresi
[email protected]: Marquita Bradshaw 901-647-8884
[email protected]: Mia Madison 901-288-0108
[email protected] Williams [email protected]
Harvey Broome Group - Knoxville/Oak Ridgehttps://www.sierraclub.org/tennessee/harvey-broomeChair: Ron Shrieves 865-924-8973
[email protected] Chair: Joanne Logan 865-310-1171
[email protected]: Kris Christen
[email protected]: Bob Perlack
[email protected]: Axel Ringe 865-397-1840
[email protected]: Ron Shrieves 865-924-8973
Middle Tennessee Group - Nashvillehttps://www.sierraclub.org/tennessee/middle-tennesseeChair: Grace Stranch 615-498-4148
[email protected] Chair: Antoinette Olesen 615-498-2778
[email protected]: Mary High 615-243-4493
[email protected]: Charles High 615-500-5499
[email protected]: Scott Hef linger 615-859-3553
shef [email protected]: Craig Jervis 615-254-5301
Chapter Retreat Location Dates
Spring Fall Creek Falls State Park May 3 - 5
Summer Cedars of Lebanon State Park July 26-28
Fall Pickett State Park October 25-27
Winter Cedars of Lebanon State Park January 24 - 26
The Chapter retreat will begin at 4 PM on Friday and end at 2 PM on Sunday. All TN Chapter Retreat participants will be required to sign the standard Sierra Club outings liability waiver when checking in at the retreat location. To review this waiver, please visithttp://content.sierraclub.org/outings/sites/content.sierraclub.org.outings/f iles/forms/local-outings-sign-in_waiver.pdf
Any attendee under the age of 18 not accompanied by parent or legal guardian must have a signed liability waiver and medical authorization form upon arrival. To review these waivers, please visit:http://content.sierraclub.org/outings/sites/content.sierraclub.org.outings/f iles/individual_waiver.pdf andhttp://content.sierraclub.org/outings/sites/content.sierraclub.org.outings/f iles/forms/local-outings-minor-release.pdf
Page 2 - March / April 2019
Watauga Group - Northeast Tennesseehttps://www.sierraclub.org/tennessee/wataugaChair: Gloria Griff ith 423-727-4797
[email protected] Chair: Dottie Grimes 423-737-4480
[email protected]: Dennis Shekinah 423-534-4804
[email protected]: Cindy Johnson 423-895-1687
[email protected]: Ed Farnworth 843-696-8324
[email protected]: Webb Griff ith 423-727-4797
Chapter Staff:
Scott BanburyConservation Program Coordinator
901-619-8567
Editor: Emily Ellis [email protected]
The Tennes-Sierran
A Wilderness Christmas Present in 2018By Will Skelton (Harvey Broome Group)The waning days of the 115th Congress inlate 2018 produced a wonderful Christmaspresent for all those citizens of Tennesseeand the United States who care about pre-serving our remaining natural areas, fromhikers and backpackers to anglers, eques-trians, hunters, bird-watchers, and bota-nists. On December 20, 2018, the Pres-ident signed into law the Farm Bill whichcontained The Tennessee Wilderness Actdesignating as Wilderness 19,556 acres ofthe Cherokee National Forest (increasingthe existing 66,389 acres protected by twoCongressional Acts in the 1980’s). Will Skelton admiring the falls on Upper Bald River. Photo by Bill Hodge
85,945 acres of the Cherokee National Forest are now protected as Wilderness (about 13% of the Cherokee’s total acreage of 655,598). This action means that these areas cannot be logged and no roads or structures can be built, but they can be used for hiking, hunting, fishing and oth-er non-mechanized activities that do notdiminish the natural beauty and wildness of the areas.
Landmark Victories 1970s & 1980sProtection for these additional areas is
the accumulation of a long-time effort by scores of people, with lots of history. One of the earliest efforts was in the mid- 1970s when Ray Payne and this writer met with the Supervisor of the Cherokee, Bob Lusk. After hearing us out, Lusk said he would oppose such because “there is no Wilderness east of the Mississippi.” Of course, he was shortly proven wrong. The first Cherokee Wilderness Area was
designated by the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act signed in 1975, which included only the small 2,493 acres Gee Creek Wil- derness. Thereafter, the Cherokee National Forest Wilderness Coalition was formed, representing individuals and businesses plus dozens of environment and wilderness groups. Their efforts resulted in the pas- sage of two Acts in 1984 and 1986 that designated 63,896 acres of the Cherokee
as Wilderness. Unfortunately, because of political opposition several important areas in the current Act could not be includedin those prior Acts, and it has been a goalof preservation-minded folks since tosee them designated as Wilderness. This especially applied to the gem of them all, the Upper Bald River Wilderness. It is sig- nificant because almost all the watershed of a large mountain stream, Bald River,
is included in the Wilderness, whichis unique for southern Appalachian Wilderness.
Cherokee Forest VoicesWork on getting additional areas
protected began after the 1980s Acts. Hugh Irwin, Arthur Smith, and Cather- ine Murray organized Cherokee Forest Voices to provide input into USFS actions and help with getting added Wilderness in the Cherokee. Most
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Opposition to Proposed Oak Ridge Hazardous Landfill Finally Buildsby Todd Waterman (Harvey Broome Group)
“Pulling contaminated buildings down and burying the material without adequate waste characterization and separation and without proper assessment of future risks is how you make a Superfund site, not how you clean one up.”-- retired TDEC groundwater contaminationexpert Sid Jones
Like TVA’s plan to close Bull Run, DOE’s innocuously-named Environmental Man- agement Disposal Facility (EMDF) proposal to bury “forever” radioactive and mercu-ry-contaminated Y-12 demolition debrisflew in under the radar when we concerned citizens were rightfully preoccupied with national elections (DOE shrewdly picked the day after the election for its only public EMDF hearing). I called DOE’s P.R. cam- paign to sell its cheap, quick-and-dirty solu- tion “a green-painted jalopy with a danger- ous monoxide leak.” Jacobs Engineering, described as “you can eat a pound a day,” helped plan the campaign.
The environmental scientists and publicservants best qualified to understand it weren’t buying it as is. They believed much or all of the waste should be shipped to ex- isting DOE landfills in arid western deserts where it could be safely buried far from the long-term leakage threats Oak Ridge faces long before “forever”: heavy rainfall,
The Tennes-Sierran
karst, earthquakes, a high water table, and a large population, which together would have blocked approval for even a normal municipal landfill without the environmen- tal exemptions DOE claimed EMDF’s ques- tionable Superfund umbrella provided. And DOE refused to specify prior to approval exactly what would go into the landfill.But DOE needed “state acceptance” and
“public acceptance.”TDEC demanded seven issues be resolved
before it would issue a permit. A slideshow by retired TDEC experts Sid Jones and Dale Rector exposed DOE failures at its existing landfill that had taught them not to trust DOE, which Sid listed in a letter to the Oak Ridger. Chapter Environmental Chair Axel Ringe, a retired DOE scientist and long- time EMDF opponent, organized a public information event. Many submitted learned comments: Sid, Dale, Axel, Oak Ridge En- vironmental Quality Advisory Board (EQAB) Chair Robert Kennedy, Sierra Club/SOCM Attorney Brian Paddock, and retired ORNL scientists Ellen Smith, Virginia Dale, and Jan Berry. Many of us plain-old concerned citizens commented, too. Sierra Clubbers Virginia, Jan, and I and others wrote letters to local papers, whose frequent coverage also built public awareness. The City ofOak Ridge passed a resolution detailing itsconcerns. The Anderson County Commis- sion got a last-minute extension of DOE’s comment period when they realized they
didn’t know enough to vote on County Mayor Terry Frank’s version of the DOE-con- tractor-friendly resolution passed by theill-informed Roane County Commission.At January 14th’s Anderson County Opera-
tions Committee meeting, Mayor Frank said new Roane County Commissioners were considering rescinding Roane’s resolution. After discussion, Frank withdrew her own. Robert Kennedy flashed me a smile. Out- side I asked him and Dale what we could do better. Kennedy said next time he won’t trust DOE and will get up to speed earlier. I’ll know experts can’t build public support unless they speak out early in the media and social media, a lesson I’ll remember also in supporting Bull Run’s closure. And for many more next times.
Photo by Todd WatermanAt DOE’s November 7 Hearing, Virginia Dale complainsof losing a home sale to West Oak Ridge’s reputation for contamination.
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Thanks to the 2018 Tennessee Wilderness Act, these areas in the Cherokee National Forest are now protected:
• Upper Bald River Wilderness,• Big Frog Wilderness Addition,• Little Frog Mountain Wilderness Addition• Little Frog Mountain Wilderness Addition• Sampson Mountain Wilderness Addition• Big Laurel Branch Wilderness Addition• Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness Addition
A Wilderness Christmas Present, continued . . .important was work on an appeal of the just approved Cherokee Forest Management Plan to ensure it provided temporary protection for priority conservation areas. A formal appeal was made and followed by months of nego- tiations among various parties and the US Forest Service. And on August 4, 1988, a press conference in Knoxville announced a settle- ment that provided some level of protection for many of the areas in the current Act. Parties to the settlement included the US Forest Service, Sierra Club, Tennessee Conservation League, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and others. The local Sierra Club Group thereafter produceda couple of editions of a hiking guide tothe Cherokee, called Hiking Guide to the Cherokee National Forest and published by UT Press in 1992 and 2005 (Tennessee Governor and later Senator Lamar Alexan- der wrote the foreword to both editions).
The Southern Appalachian AssessmentThe Southern Appalachian Assessment,
a multi-agency assessment of the condi- tions and needs of Southern Appalachian forests that came out in 1995, kicked off a round of Forest Plan revisions in most ofthe Southern Appalachian national forests,including the Cherokee. Even before the release of the assessment, the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition (SAFC) was formed to lead and coordinate the plan revision effort throughout all of the national forests undergoing revision. The coalition consisted of national groups including The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club; regional groups including Southern Environ- mental Law Center; and grassroots groups active in all the national forests, including Cherokee Forest Voices. A major focus of SAFC and all of the groups in the coalition was to get good wilderness recommenda- tions coming out of these forest plans. This was a long arduous process and the first new forest plans didn’t emerge until 2004.
Part of the reason the process took solong was the development of the so-called Roadless Rule. The plan revision process was largely on hold during the late 1990s and early 2000s while the Forest Service inventoried and developed the Roadless Rule to identify and protect large “road- less” areas. SAFC and its member groups
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were very active in the development of the Rule, not only advocating for provisions that eventually became part of the rule but also making sure the right areas werecovered in the rule. The Roadless Rule thatcame out at the end of the Clinton Admin- istration in 2001 formalized protection of Upper Bald River and other conservation lands, including all of the areas eventually included in the Tennessee Wilderness Act. The status of the Roadless Rule remained in flux throughout the Bush Administration, but the last legal challenge was settled in 2013. By assuring that areas had some level of protection, the Roadless Rule also helped to pave the way for eventual desig- nation of the Cherokee areas. The Rule’s roadless areas became the list from which Cherokee National Forest and other nation- al forests selected areas to recommendfor wilderness. When the revised CherokeeNational Forest Plan came out in 2004,it recommended wilderness designation (Wilderness Study Areas or WSAs) for the areas that were eventually included in the Tennessee Wilderness Act. With thatadministrative protection it was then only amatter, and as it turned out a very difficult matter, of getting Congress to approve the Wilderness designation of those WSAs.
The Tennessee Wilderness CampaignFollowing the release of the Cherokee
Forest Plan there were discussions by SAFC, Cherokee Forest Voices and others about legislative efforts to implement the wilderness recommendations contained in the Plan. SAFC also held two workshops and numerous discussions in Tennessee between 2004 and 2008 to explore whichareas to pursue for wilderness designation,what this effort would take, and thelevel of support for the idea of a wilderness campaign. Subsequently, in 2008, Mark Shelley, on behalf of SAFC, hired Jeff Hunt- er to direct a Tennessee Wilderness cam- paign. Jeff did a great job getting things started up again, including organizationof a new coalition called Tennessee Wild;setting up monthly telephone conference calls; contacting the numerous politicians who had an interest in the Cherokee; including local mayors, talking to civic and
other groups; setting up outings in the WSAs (including some especially popular fresh water snorkeling trips), and such. Jeff was able to arrange personal hikes with political aides in some of the WSAs, includ- ing Curtis Swager and Jane Chedester from Senator Alexander’s office and Jane Jolley from Senator Corker’s office. And South- Wings, a non-profit that flies people over endangered natural areas, did overflights of many of the WSAs, including taking Con- gressman Roe over some of the northern areas and David Leaverton from Senator Corker’s office together with several jour- nalists over some of the southern areas.
Jeff also set up a series of annual meet-ings, bringing together people who were working on Tennessee wilderness to dis- cuss strategy. Those meetings were held in either Knoxville or Chattanooga and the first was on August 20, 2008, at the National Parks and Conservation Associa- tion’s offices in Knoxville. A second meet- ing was held on June 27, 2009, and themeetings continued most years thereafteruntil the Act’s passage. Unlike the 1980s Wilderness campaign, which was almost exclusively volunteer led and implemented, the campaign in the 2000s was dominat- ed by professional employees of various environmental organizations, who brought a high degree of competence to the ef- forts,including The Wilderness Society, Ten- nessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, Southern Environment Law Center, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, South Wings, Cher- okee Forest Voices, and Wild South. They were joined by volunteer representatives of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club.
Senators Alexander and CorkerOne of the more important catalysts that
led to the current Act was probably a meet- ing in Washington DC on December 9,2009, between Senator Lamar Alexanderand Bill Meadows, the president of The Wilderness Society, Jeff Hunter, the field organizer for Tennessee Wild, and this writ- er. Alexander of course had a history with Wilderness in the Cherokee since the
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The Tennes-Sierran
Group Business MeetingsGroup Date Location
Cherokee (Chattanooga) Mon 3/4, 4/1, 5/6 --6:00 PM Pilgrim Congregational Church,,400 Glenwood Dr., Chattanooga
Chickasaw (Memphis) Wed 3/6, 4/3, 5/1 -- 6;00 PM Cheffie’s Cafe, 483 High Point Terrace, Memphis
Harvey Broome (Knoxville) Tue 3/26, 4/23, 5/28 -- 7:00 PM The Church of the Savior, 934 N. Weisgarber Rd., Knoxville
Middle TN (Nashville) Mon 3/18, 4/15, 5/20 -- 6:30 PM House of Kabob, 216 Thompson Lane, Nashville
Watauga (Mountain City)Tue 3/12, 4/9 -- 5:00 PM 5908 Highway 421 South, Mountain City
Tue 5/14 -- 5:00 PM R&D Campground, 900 Minningtown Rd, Mountain City
Group Program MeetingsGroup Date Location
Cherokee (Chattanooga)Mon 3/25, 4/22 -- 7:00 PM Unitarian Universalist Church,3224 Navajo Dr., Chattanooga
Mon 5/27 No meeting due to Memorial Day - Take a walk in the woods
Chickasaw (Memphis) Thu 3/21, 4/18, 5/16 -- 5:55 PM Benjamin Hooks Public Library, 3030 Poplar Ave, Memphis
Harvey Broome (Knoxville) Tue 3/12, 4/9, 5/14 -- 7:00 PM TN Valley Unitarian Universalist Church 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville
Middle TN (Nashville) Thu 3/14, 4/11, 5/9 -- 7:00 PM Radnor Lake Nature Center, 1160 Otter Creek RD, Nashville
A Wilderness Christmas Present, continued . . .1980s when as Tennessee Governor he supported the two Tennessee wilderness bills. And this time he was again sup- portive and promised to introduce a bill to protect as wilderness the WSAs recommended in the Forest Plan by the US Forest Service. Prior to that meeting Jeff Hunter along with Brent Mar- tin (The Wilderness Society), and Mark McKnight (Rock Creek Outfitters in Chattanooga) led a hike in the Big Frog Additions WSA and included one of Senator Alexander’s aides Brent Wiles.
On June 2, 2011, Senator Alexander and Senator Bob Corker,who by background was a supporter of outdoor recreation and quickly went along with our proposal, introduced The Tennes- see Wilderness Act of 2011, which was described in a press release by Senator Alexander as “designating as wilderness nearly 20,000 acres in six areas of the Cherokee National For- est . . . I grew up hiking the mountains of East Tennessee, and I know that if we conserve these wildlife areas and preserve these landscapes, we’ll give the next generations the same opportunity. This bill takes an important step toward protecting the natural heritage that is so important to Tennesseans and the millions of tourists who visit each year looking to experi- ence pristine nature for themselves.” Unfortunately, it would take reintroductions of the same bill in 2013, 2015, and 2017 before it would become law. But Senator Alexander persevered and made it happen.During the near-decade of work, things changed politically
with Congressman Duncan of Knoxville losing from his district the counties that had WSAs, leaving Congressman Phil Roe in the First Congressional District with two WSAs and Congress- man Chuck Fleischmann in the Third Congressional District with five WSAs. And after doing great work for several years, in January 2014 Jeff Hunter left Tennessee Wild and was re- placed for a short time by Pat Byington, who was then replaced by Laura Hodge in May 2014. Laura definitely carried the ball over the goal line, persisting with the campaign through fundingand other issues and doing an outstanding job in seeing the Actfinally passed. Funding of the Tennessee Wild campaign varied over the years, with vital funds coming from the Benwood Foun- dation, Lyndhurst Foundation, The Conservation Alliance, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Patagonia, Inc.
Meeting ChallengesSeveral major issues arose regarding the Wilderness Bill and
the campaign to get it passed. First, the Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club, a usual ally, announced its opposition since it maintained the Appalachian Trail throughthe Big Laurel Branch area and, absent special approval, could not use chain saws for such maintenance if it were designated Wilderness. At that point Bill Hodge, Laura’s husband, stepped in with a brilliant proposal that he subsequently carried out: to organizea new nonprofit group to maintain the trails in Wilderness Areaswith hand tools and no chain saws. The idea resulted froma joint presentation on wilderness by Bill and conservation legend Doug Scott at East Tennessee State University in July of 2010; after the presentation the two developed the idea for what was Bill’s proposal. Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (“SAWS”) was shortly organized and began maintain- ing the Big Laurel Branch portion of the AT in addition to trailsin 64 other Wilderness areas (including Big Laurel Branch afterthe massive storm in 2016 that resulted in over 200 blow- downs). Having addressed the trail maintenance concerns through the work of SAWS, the campaign gained the support of Congressman Phil Roe of Johnson City, who is personally a hik- er and mountain climber, and he agreed to introduce a version of the wilderness bill for his district in the next Congress. How- ever, in Chattanooga, Congressman Fleishman unfortunately proved to be intractable and adamantly opposed to any Wilder- ness bill in his district (Oak Ridge to Chattanooga). Innumera- ble letters and personal contacts by even lots of his financial supporters failed to change his mind. Ultimately, the work- around was to get a House of Representatives bill through the various committees just for Congressman Roe’s district, anda bill covering both Roe and Fleishman’s districts through theSenate Committees. Then the Senate version would be tucked into another must-pass bill (the Farm Bill) and the final version,
The Tennes-Sierran
after a House-Senate Conference Committee approval, would include both districts. Senator Alexander gets all the credit in the world for making this happen, and indeed for the passage of the Tennessee Wilderness Bill. Without Senator Alexander, with help from Senator Corker and Congressman Roe, we would still be a long way from get- ting the bill passed.
Success and Many Thanks!The ultimate result is 85,945 acres of the Cherokee National Forest
protected as Wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act (about 13% of the total acreage). This success story has been the result of work by many people over many years and it is impossible to recognize and thank everyone. However, a brief list should at least include the people who were invited to the very first annual meeting of Ten- nessee Wild in 2008, and who were involved for a substantial time thereafter: Betty Petty, Catherine Murray, David Carr, Doug Scott, Jeff Hunter, Jimmy Groton, Mark Miller, Mark Shelley, Ray Payne, Sandra Goss, Hugh Irwin, and this writer. Many others were also subse- quently involved, some long term and others more briefly. A partial list of additional people who worked on getting the Bill passed would include Larry Romans, Brent Martin, Bill Meadows, Anders Reynolds, Laura and Bill Hodge, Emily Diamond-Falk, and Jill Gottesman. And many others contributed along the way. Thanks to all those people who worked tirelessly over the years for a common goal, we now have a significant amount of protected Wilderness in the Cherokee National Forest for the use and enjoyment of current and future gen- erations of wilderness loving people.
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Some Effects of Global Warmingin Lackawanna County
by Jay Parini
The maples sweat now, out of season.Buds pop eyes in wintry bushesas the birds arrive, not having checkedthe calendars or clocks. They scramblein the frost for seeds, while undergrounda sobbing starts in roots and tubers.Ice cracks easily along the bank.It slides in gullies where a bear, still groggy, steps through coiled wire of the weeds. Kids in T-shirts run to school, unawarethat summer is a long way off.Their teachers flirt with off-the-wall assignments, drum their fingers on the sweaty desktops.As for me, my heart leaps high—a deer escaping from the crosshairs,skipping over barely frozen wateras the surface bends and splinters underfoot.
Reprinted with permission of the author
Join the Middle Tennessee GroupBeer, Music, Friends and You
Sierra Social 3rd Thursday of every month
March 21, 5:00-7:00 PMTailgate Brewery in Bellevue, 7300 Charlotte Pike
We will be in the front room of the facility.
Stay tuned. Check out Campfire andFacebook for April location.
Blazing Trails at the Winter Retreatby Todd Waterman (Harvey Broome Group)
“Explore, Enjoy, Protect.” At the Winter Retreat, there were both trails to explore with Randy Hedgepath in Cedars of Leba- non, and for the Tennessee Chapter, trails to be blazed into our state’s future. Another Conservation Education Day (CED) of lob- bying in Nashville was in the works, and wehad legislation to discuss. It was necessaryto raise money to fund a salaried position: Conservation Coordinator/Lobbyist Scott Banbury. TennCan’s Marge Davis would tell us about the Bottle Bill. Our Chapter Executive Committee (ExCom) would electnew officers, appoint committee chairs, andsave the planet. Revitalization Project would sunset, though its commitments would not. And revered Axel Ringe would step down from what he has called “the job I always wanted.” Tennessee Conservation Chair-- but not without passing along the torch tohis chosen successor.
Political Chair Bill Moll kicked off Satur- day morning’s meetings with Conservation Education Day’s legislator asks, the lobby training the night before, and a discussion of respectful, productive lobbying: “There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies.” Since many legislators, the Governor, and much else are new, the legislative session has been delayed,so Bill has rescheduled CED for March5-6.
State Forester David Arnold of Leb- anon followed with a discussion of his role and the challenges of protecting native plants from harmful insects, and of keeping invasive plants from out-competing with them. For addition- al information see https://bit.ly/Protect_TN_Forests.
Treasurer Alice Demetreon andFundraising Chair Barbara Kelly ledthe more-vital-than-ever discussionon funding our Chapter Conservation Coordinator, currently Scott Banbury, beyond the two years current funds would cover, and still funding the Chapter’s other ongoing needs.
After lunch Chapter Chair Mac Post pre-sented a PowerPoint on the Harvey Broome Group’s Inspiring Connections Outdoors
(ICO) (https://bit.ly/Harvey-Broome_ICO), a Sierra Club program designed to help inner-city kids experience the natural world, to which he brings contagious enthusiasm and passion. Mac began with reminding us all how skewed our nation’s environmental
and appreciate nature, and one day per- haps to show their appreciation by helping to protect nature.
That night we feasted well, thanks toAlice Demetreon and the Cherokee Group’smostly-vegetarian fare including a succu- lent African sweet potato stew!
Saturday evening’s program was MargeDavis’s 40-year history of TennCan and the Bottle Bill, which will establish five-cent deposit on glass, aluminum, and plastic beverage containers, 3.5 billion every year, saving $10 million a year, and launching
keep all that ugly trash from our roadways and waterways in our tourist-courting state.
Chapter Chair Mac started out Sundaymorning’s ExCom meeting with a quick
Outgoing Committee Chairs made their reports. Alice’s budget was approved, and Fundraising champ Barbara urged us all to join new monthly Chapter donors, who
have since August kicked in an additional $236 a month. Communications Chair Gary Bowers urged us to familiarize ourselves with Campfire, which will link our eventson all other platforms. He bragged on thisTennes-Sierran issue’s new Editor, Emily El-lis from Knoxville, and announced that Allie
Axel, saying “This is my swan song,” of- fered his advice as outgoing Conservation Chair on the challenges we face in the com- ing months and years: TDEC’s policy of not going beyond Federal regulations, landfill issues, reintroducing biodiversity legisla- tion, Beyond Coal. He thanked the group for letting him serve.
Bill Moll said Axel would be supportinghim: “I wouldn’t have agreed otherwise.” He also conveyed a message from Scott: full- time doesn’t mean twenty-four hours a day. “I want to take exception with Axel, that you
run the entire U.S. government on Twitter.”The Clarksville Conservation Committee’s
JoAnn McIntosh reported the lead-acid bat- tery plant they’d opposed had turned out
this shortly. Bill Moll’s proposal for more ac- cessible Skype ExCom meetings would be discussed further. We broke camp, leaving no trace.
Heritage Days Festival: Electric Vehicles at Rogersvilleby Joanne Irvin (Member of Care NET Com- munity Conservation Committee (CCC) of the Tennessee Chapter of Sierra Club)
The Heritage Days Festival is held inRogersville in October with music, vendors, a cruise-in of antique cars, and a children’s parade. Local businesses showcase their work. Everyone turns out; the streets are open only to pedestrians. It’s a crowded, joyous time.This year Care NET CCC hosted an Electric
Vehicle (EV) event. Sheldon Livesay (Shep- herd’s Center and its ministry) gave us permission to use five spaces in his park- ing lot. “Give them the five parking places closest to Main Street. The climate needs this change in transportation.” On Friday evening after everyone was headed home we staked out the parking places with saw horses and prayer flags, and set up our table and canopy.
Page 6 - March / April 2019
Saturday morning two Teslas, a Model-3 and a Model-S sedan, arrived with their en- thusiastic owners. Ashley Breed and James Little, big promoters of Tesla, tirelessly answered questions all day long, demon- strating the wonders of the Tesla design.Local dealerships loaned us a Nissan
Leaf, a Mitsubishi Plug-in Hybrid, and a Honda Clarity. People asked questions, sat in cars, and picked up information. Ten-to- fifteen year-old boys and girls who had obvi- ously done their research gathered around the Tesla owners asking in-depth questions about how the cars worked and how the AI (Artificial Intelligence) makes decisions in traffic.Currently the state of Tennessee has no
incentives for switching to electric vehi- cles. But, owners get an economic benefit since fueling with electricity is like fueling with gas at $1.00 per gallon. And with only
about 20 moving parts, the maintenance of an EV is much cheaper.
Charging an EV can be done througha 120-volt wall outlet, although it’s slow.An hour of charge from a 120-volt plug-in gives a five-mile range for driving, requir- ing an overnight plug to get a full charge. Level 2 charging is faster since it uses a 240 volt wall outlet. Each hour of charge provides about 20 miles of driving range. And then there’s the DCFC (Direct Current Fast Charge) which gives you 80% of a full charge in 40 minutes, providing 40 miles of driving for each 10 minutes of charge. Money saved driving an EV will go back into the local economy.Best of all, driving EVs improves air qual-
ity, decreases health care costs, and adds less carbon to Earth’s atmosphere.
The Tennes-Sierran
Elected and Re-elected Officers
Mac Post---Chapter ChairGary Bowers---Communications Coordinator Barbara Kelly---Fundraising ChairJoanne Logan---SecretaryAlice Demetreon--TreasurerAxel Ringe---Litigation ChairDavid Bordenkircher---Legislative ChairMarquita Bradshaw---Environmental Justice Chair Paula Lennon--Membership ChairRon Shrieves--Outings ChairBill Moll--Political ChairMac Post---Personnel ChairAlice Demetreon---Bylaws & Standing Rules Chair Ramie Bell--Nominations ChairTBA--Election Chair and Compliance Office
priorities have become, and then described Stafford from Chattanooga would be gettingall the ways ICO teaches kids to understand a Chapter e-newsletter established.
hundreds of new recycling businesses - and can’t run conservation on Twitter. You can
discussion of norms, then we had elections. to be “a done deal” before they’d found outabout it. This motivated the Commit-tee to be proactive and search outthe required legal announcementsfor public input. CareNet’s NancyBell reported on landfills, the Jack-son Law, and the Holston Ammuni-tion Plant explosion in Kingsport.
Gloria Griffith’s motion to reclas-sify the current Watauga Groupleadership team in Mountain City asa Conservation Committee and worktoward developing new leadershipfor the Wautaga Group centered inJohnson City carried. So did JoAnn’smotion to give new ExCom membersprintable rather than printed LeaderHandbooks.
The can was kicked on a motionfor a TennCan resolution. Look foran e-vote by the Chapter ExCom on
Chickasaw Program: Climate Change, It’s Seriousby Dennis Lynch (Chickasaw Group)
When you talk about Climate Changeto a Sierra Club member, it’s like preach- ing to the choir. We get it! We know it’s serious. We know in our hearts and minds that we need to take action to change the obvious trends. But, how do we get thenay-sayers to change their minds?
At Chickasaw Group’s January Program on climate change, Earth Sciences Profes- sor Dorian Burnette, local meteorologist Austen Onek, and Chickasaw group energy chair Joe Ozegovich reviewed some of the facts and refuted some of the nay-sayers.Professor Burnette demonstrated with
statistics that the globe is warming. He an- alyzed possible causes of warming guid- ed by the research of Casper Ammann from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Is global warming caused by El Niño/La Niña or by “Pacific Decadal Oscil- lation”? Temperatures in the upper atmo- sphere and lower atmosphere and on the surface demonstrate that these are nat-
ural oscillations. Then Burnette looked at the impact of volcanic eruptions. Analysis shows that human activity’s contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere is 150 times that of volcanoes. The contribution of CO2 is significant right after an eruption, but over time is small.Meteorologist Austen Onek had some
fun at the expense of the nay-sayers and showed cartoons and humorous imag- es, like former Senator Imhofe bringinga snowball to the floor of the Senate asproof there is no global warming and a cartoon named “Climate Summit” original- ly published in USA Today with the cap- tion, “What if it’s a hoax and we create a better world for nothing.”Many factors affect short-term tempera-
tures and variations in climate over time. The trends and the relative impacts of var- ious “forcing agents” are clear. We needto make significant changes in our burningof fossil fuels. We should no longer debate whether there is need for action.
Chickasaw Group’s Strategic Planning Session for 2019by Dennis Lynch (Chickasaw Group)
In 2018, the Chickasaw Group (CKG) de- fined four strategic areas for extra attention during the year. In 2019, the CKG adjusted slightly and now has six strategic areasof focus (listed below). More importantly,CKG has used the phrase “Action-Oriented Working Groups” to describe the groups of individuals who come together to work on the details of each Working Group (WG). On every occasion, the groups will empha- size the importance of being action-ori- ented. One other key aspect of the stra- tegic planning session is that the groups’ memberships include a few community members to discuss and share ideas in our focus areas.The emphasis is on action for multiple
reasons: 1) because everyone comes to- gether in order to have a positive impact on our environment; 2) many individuals who participate want to volunteer to work and not just to “be on a committee;” and 3) ev- eryone wants to be able to point to accom- plishments at the end of the day or week or
The Tennes-Sierran
month. CKG wants to facilitate, and theseactions will help make it happen.The six strategic areas CKG will focus on
are: 1) Reduce/Reuse/Recycle & Solid Waste; 2) Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency; 3) Clean Water and the Aquifer; 4) Parks and Open Spaces; 5) Transpor- tation; and 6) Environmental Justice (EJ). Note that EJ is woven throughout all of the other strategic areas but also has its own WG to maintain a position of high impor- tance. Marquita Bradshaw, who has been elected to both the Chapter’s Ex-Com and also the Chickasaw Group’s Ex-Com, is excited and challenged to help implement EJ principles throughout our WG, as well as throughout the Group and Chapter.The planning session included almost
two hours of brainstorming and discussion about the strategic areas and created a set of effective details within each of the stra- tegic areas. These details amount to a bit of a “kick-start” when each WG begins its work, but will be supplemented and mod- ified by the individuals who activate each
WG. The input to the Energy WG includedcommunity solar, energy burden, rooftop solar, LED streetlights, electric buses, EV charging infrastructure, elimination of the TVA 100% supply contract, no nuclear, PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy), EJ, and Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) rates restructuring. This should bea fun WG to work with and work on. There’sgoing to be a lot of action here.
As mentioned above, one other key as- pect of the WGs is to be very involved with other community members. In addition, some WG members will be representatives of other community groups, like the NAACP, BLDG Memphis, the Coalition of Con- cerned Citizens, and various neighborhood groups. This will bring diversity of individu- als and breadth of ideas to each WG. It is also hoped and expected that it will enable us to broaden and strengthen Sierra Club membership.
We will report back to the Group and theChapter as to how the Working Groupsgrow and evolve and ultimately succeed.
Page 7 - March / April 2019
These seven companies are still supporting the Plastic
Industry Association’s efforts:
Coca-ColaPepsiCo
General MotorsFord Motor Company
MillikenNewell Rubbermaid
SC Johnson
HOLD THE DATE!HEADS UP--FUN!
JUNE 1 2:00–8:00 PM CENTRAL TIME
Sierra Club Middle TN Chapterinvites
the entire state to cometogether for its annual picnic at the
beautiful Edwin Warner Parkin Nashville. Music, games, youthactivities, door prizes and great
food on the grill.
Come join in the fun and help us wel-come our new members
Heck. . .invite some of your own newmembers!
Stay tuned--Check Campfireand Facebook
or email: [email protected]
Great Future in Plastics? Tell Corporate America, “NO!”From the iconic film The Graduate (1967): Rather than address this problem, theMr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Plastic Industry Association is workingJust one word. diligently to keep us reliant on dispos-Benjamin: Yes, sir. able plastic products.Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Let’s tell these businesses their sup-Benjamin: Yes, I am.port of the plastic industry’s work toMr. McGuire: Plastics.subvert our local democratic effortsBenjamin: Exactly how do you mean?has not gone unnoticed. Becton Dickin-Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plas-son, a medical technology firm, recentlytics. Think about it. Will you think about it?left the plastic industry after learningof their lobbying efforts on local plasticEvery minute the equivalent of anordinances. Chlorox committed to notentire garbage truck of plastic getsrenewing their membership. Speak updumped into our oceans. In the Unitedto get these other companies to do the Follow this link to learn more and take action:States, stores distribute 100 billionsame!single-use plastic bags per year, many
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/of which end up in our waterways.end-support-for-plastic-polluting-our-oceans
Message in a Bottle
Photo by Mark Campen
Clarksville Conservation Committee Hosts Bottle Bill Presentation
by JoAnn McIntoshUntil recently, the phrase “message in a
bottle” brought to mind a ragged castaway on a tiny island, retrieving a slip of paper from a glass bottle that had traveled the seas far and wide. If there was a caption to this picture, it was something ironic: maybe the message was from another castaway in even more dire straits than the recipient. But now, in an updated ver- sion of this picture, the message isn’t on a piece of paper and the bottle isn’t glass; the message is the bottle itself and it’s made out of plastic.We’ve been marketed into becoming a
throw-away society. Plastics especially are just too inexpensive to produce for anyone to consider them of any inherent value, and we didn’t think that throwing them into the Great Away would have the repercus- sions that we are witnessing now: aquatic birds and animals ingesting or strangling on plastic, landfills running out of space
to hide it, microplastics in our water sup- ply – all right here in Tennessee. Our state hasn’t had a great track record dealing with trash issues, and our recycling rate is under 10%. But that could soon change.
In January, Sierra Club Clarksville-Mont-gomery County hosted a presentationby Marge Davis on the TennCan project. She spoke with great enthusiasm about the implementation of a “bottle bill” to a crowd that included a county sustainability official, city council members, and a state representative. Listeners were energized by the possibilities, ready to get to work supporting the bill.
Container deposit legislation is in theworks. Other states and countries world- wide have laws that require a deposit on glass, metal, and plastic containers and their recycling rates for these containers are upwards of 80%. In Tennessee, the TennCan project has been developing a model based on these successful pro-
grams and has taken it up a notch: the five-cent container deposit will not only increase recycling, reduce trash, and im- prove water quality, it will also create jobs, generate revenue, and benefit non-profit organizations.We can all support container deposit
legislation. Talk to your city and county officials; show your schools, churches, scout troops how they can earn money; get your solid waste managers on board. If we prepare now--addressing this issue in our communities and building local coalitions of support--we can have statewide success when a bill is presented to the Legislature in 2020. We will all benefit from having a five-cent container deposit law in Tennes- see – let’s get that message ON the bottle.
For more information: http://www.tnbottlebill.org
How Do I Dispose of Animal Waste Without Plastic Bags?Mr. Green digs around for an answer.
by Bob Schildgen (Columnist, Sierra Magazine)
Hey Mr. Green,I totally support banning plastic grocery bags. I also have sev-
eral animal family members and am dutiful in cleaning up after them on walks (and in home litter boxes). How to clean up when we no longer have all those plastic bags? —Diane in Woodland Park, Colorado
While a number of solutions exist for dealing with dog waste, my preferred method is simply picking it up with a pooper scooper, carrying it home, and flushing it down the toilet. However, one should always contact local sewer czars to make sure that this practice is locally permitted. It is not recommended for house- holds with private, nonmunicipal sewer systems, as dog hair could clog the sewer system. But such residences can simply collect
the dog residue in a single plastic bag for a spell, then seal it, and place it in the regular garbage, thereby reducing the number of bags required.
Cats are an entirely different matter. Their waste should nev-er be put into sewage systems as it harbors Toxoplasma gondii, which can cause pregnant mothers to pass the disease on to newborns, where it can lead to various health problems, from eye damage to mental retardation. It can also affect adults who have weakened immune systems or are on chemotherapy.Dirty cat litter should be removed daily and only be placed in
trash that is disposed of in a landfill. Cats that are not fed red meat and are kept indoors—as all cats should be—are not likely to become infected.
Reprinted from www.sierraclub.org
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